Syncing grades: Moodle course in Canvas

Syncing grades: Moodle course in Canvas

by Danny Rubin -
Number of replies: 10

Hi there,

I successfully added an entire Moodle course to Canvas through LTI. I can't figure out how to sync grades between Moodle and Canvas.

To be clear, I put an entire Moodle course with dozens of activities into a single Canvas activity. So when a student completes an activity in my Moodle course, I don't know where the grade for that specific activity goes in Canvas? I don't see the sync, but I have the sync set up right in Moodle.

Again, I am not connecting a single activity through LTI. It's a full course. 

Anyone have experience here?

Thanks,

- Danny

Attachment Moodle inside Canvas.JPG
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In reply to Danny Rubin

Re: Syncing grades: Moodle course in Canvas

by Joseph Liaw -
I would also like to get Moodle to Canvas LTI working--does anyone have directions with screenshots to get this working? If you could share that with everyone that would help a lot of folks out....

I've tried following the Docs directions, setting up Cartridge URL, Secret, Launch URL, and Registration URL, but I'm not getting Moodle to "talk" to Canvas and it bombs out with errors.

In Canvas, it looks like you can only push back an entire Course grade, or just a single quiz / assignment from Moodle once you get it working.
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In reply to Joseph Liaw

Re: Syncing grades: Moodle course in Canvas

by Joseph Liaw -
Wanted to report back that I think I figured out how to get the initial LTI working--there is a bug where if you have a favicon set in your theme, it causes the LTI to bomb out. Removing the favicon gets the LTI going!

Now I'm having the problem of the course grade in Moodle pushing back to Canvas via an Assignment set up as an External Tool--anyone get this working and could share any tips or directions?

Thanks!
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In reply to Joseph Liaw

Re: Syncing grades: Moodle course in Canvas

by Danny Rubin -

Joseph...the issue is that Moodle's core LTI cannot send a single assignment grade across to an external LMS like Canvas. If you have connected your course to another LTI, it will send across an averaged grade of ALL the assignments graded in your Moodle course as a single grade in the external LMS gradebook.

I have located a developer who is reconfiguring my LTI so that it will send individual assignments with individual grades to the external LMS. I will let you know if we are successful.

Does that answer help you?

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In reply to Danny Rubin

Re: Syncing grades: Moodle course in Canvas

by Joseph Liaw -

Hi Danny:

That is VERY helpful--I was going crazy trying to figure it out!

It looks like though you can set a single activity (e.g. Quiz / Discussion Forum) vs. a Course to LTI the grade pass back to an external LMS like Canvas, so that might help some teachers.

Another idea is to use the fantastic SubCourse plugin to push back an entire "unit" of instruction from Moodle as a Course grade to an external LMS--not ideal but at least it gives instructors options....

On another note, I got the LTI integration between Canvas and Moodle working partially, but my dilemma is that in a Moodle a new user account is created with the student's identical email / first name / last name, but NOT mapped to the existing user account that is already in Moodle--a completely new username is created (e.g. "enrol_lti85984fc6add9f757fff3a415eb90a54252f7e280") with a crazy string.  Any ideas on how to actually tie the 2 accounts together, or to avoid a new account being created?

That would be the "magic sauce" that would tie the 2 systems together and build synergy between platforms to enable teachers to harness the best of each tool!

Thanks for all your help!

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In reply to Joseph Liaw

Re: Syncing grades: Moodle course in Canvas

by Danny Rubin -

I plan to only have users create accounts through the LTI connection -- not through my actual account creation process. You can group users by authentication method (Auto Group plugin) so you can keep them organized that way.

That will avoid duplication. 

Joseph...are you a teacher or a vendor selling to schools? I am a vendor (rubineducation.com).


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In reply to Danny Rubin

Re: Syncing grades: Moodle course in Canvas

by Joseph Liaw -

Hi Danny:

I'm just a teacher, but also the system admin for our Moodle....

Doing account creation through LTI keeps it simple for the consumer system, but makes a huge mess in Moodle and creates multiple accounts for each user....I'm thinking there might be a setting under Authentication settings where you can lock user profile fields to help prevent duplication and to tie the accounts together...

Will have to test after the holidays, and will report back what I figure out....if anyone knows how to tie together LTI accounts with existing user accounts in Moodle, please share since this will help a lot of people!!

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In reply to Joseph Liaw

Re: Syncing grades: Moodle course in Canvas

by Joseph Liaw -

Just wanted to report I figured out that in Canvas you have to set the LTI app as "Public" under privacy options so that the students first and last names are passed through to Moodle...then it works and the total course grade syncs back!!!

Then in Canvas, you have to add Moodle as an Assignment as an External Tool and pick the LTI app that you configured!

You can not have students login both manually, or with OAuth2, or with LTI--then you end up with multiple accounts for the same student!

So the trick is to only use the Canvas LTI app Assignment as the method your students will login if you want to successfully integrate Moodle into Canvas....

Hope that helps!

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In reply to Danny Rubin

Re: Syncing grades: Moodle course in Canvas

by Rob Frank -
Hi Danny. I would be interested in hearing if your revised LTI tool works. I'm not using Canvas, but I am trying to get assignment grade from Moodle back into the external LMS. Thanks!

I also found another issue. When a student clicks through to Moodle and it's set to hit a quiz it creates an account but without a role. If I set it to connect to the course it logs the student with a student role. 
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In reply to Rob Frank

Re: Syncing grades: Moodle course in Canvas

by Arto Aalto -
Hi,
I am also interested.
Has anyone got the Quiz result stored on an external system via LTI?
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In reply to Arto Aalto

Re: Syncing grades: Moodle course in Canvas

by Joseph Liaw -
Moodle can sync to Canvas via LTI, but it's a lot of trial-and-error.

Canvas LTI will grab the entire course grade, unless you setup a specific LTI for a quiz (thought that would be annoying!).

However, it works and it makes getting students from one platform into the other a piece of cake!

Here's a blog post with a guide I put up:

https://sites.google.com/hinsdale86.org/skunkworkslearning/course-building/course-management/lti-integration
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